Lagos State Ministry of Health has confirmed its first case of COVID-19, otherwise known as Coronavirus.
The case, which was confirmed yesterday, is the first to be reported in Nigeria since the outbreak of the virus in China, January this year.
In a statement, the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi says the affected individual is an Italian citizen who came to Nigeria on Tuesday from Milan, reportedly fell ill, and was transfered to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing, COVID-19 infection.
It adds that the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control confirmed the victim as positive.
According to the Commissioner, the patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.
Assuring Lagos residents that the Corona virus incident monitoring team and other stakeholders are working to identify contacts of the patient, since his arrival in Nigeria, the commissioner says people who become infected may experience only a mild illness and recover easily, but more severe in others, particularly the elderly and persons with other chronic illnesses. RN